Spelling Woes
In the middle of this year, my son's childcare started to give him spelling.
To be honest, I have never given any spelling test to my students. Apparently, secondary school students do not need any spelling help. My own experience of spelling is... Well, it has been such a long time, I cannot remember it anymore. I suspect, though, that it involved canning when I did not achieve a satisfactory grade. Needless to say, I was not every sure how to teach my son spelling.
I poured through pages and pages of research. To my surprise, spelling was not as simple as I thought it was. I always thought that I could spell because of my frequent usage of English (the less frequent I used a word, the harder it was for me to spell it). However, it was also apparent that I subconsciously used phonics when spelling less familiar words. I also recalled some basic spelling rules that had been buried deep inside my brain while doing my reading. In other words, spelling is not only the matter of memorisation and practice, it also included knowledge of phonics and spelling rules.
To cut a long story short, after trying out various strategies with my son, I came to a conclusion. The best way for my son to learn spelling was the classic strategy - look, cover, write, check. Yes, look at the word. Memorise it. Write it down. Then uncover the word and check for accuracy. Repeat and rinse.
So my first tip for spelling - the basic strategy is 'look, cover, write, check'. However, there are still many issues with this strategy. It prepares for spelling tests, but it does not really help for long-term retention. In Bloom's Taxonomy, this strategy is of the lowest cognitive thinking skill and will not help. I will address other strategies that will help with long-term memory retention in other posts.
To be honest, I have never given any spelling test to my students. Apparently, secondary school students do not need any spelling help. My own experience of spelling is... Well, it has been such a long time, I cannot remember it anymore. I suspect, though, that it involved canning when I did not achieve a satisfactory grade. Needless to say, I was not every sure how to teach my son spelling.
I poured through pages and pages of research. To my surprise, spelling was not as simple as I thought it was. I always thought that I could spell because of my frequent usage of English (the less frequent I used a word, the harder it was for me to spell it). However, it was also apparent that I subconsciously used phonics when spelling less familiar words. I also recalled some basic spelling rules that had been buried deep inside my brain while doing my reading. In other words, spelling is not only the matter of memorisation and practice, it also included knowledge of phonics and spelling rules.
To cut a long story short, after trying out various strategies with my son, I came to a conclusion. The best way for my son to learn spelling was the classic strategy - look, cover, write, check. Yes, look at the word. Memorise it. Write it down. Then uncover the word and check for accuracy. Repeat and rinse.
So my first tip for spelling - the basic strategy is 'look, cover, write, check'. However, there are still many issues with this strategy. It prepares for spelling tests, but it does not really help for long-term retention. In Bloom's Taxonomy, this strategy is of the lowest cognitive thinking skill and will not help. I will address other strategies that will help with long-term memory retention in other posts.
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